Inge Keller

Inge Keller (15 December 1923 – 6 February 2017) was a German stage and film actress whose career on stage and screen spanned seventy years. She was one of the most prominent performers in the former German Democratic Republic. Thomas Langhoff described her as "perhaps the most famous actress of the German Democratic Republic—a star." In 1943, she became a member of the cast in the Freiberg State Theater, and then moved to the Theater Chemnitz in 1944. Alongside all other theaters in Nazi Germany, the latter was closed down on 1 September 1944, when Joseph Goebbels decided to "extend the Total War into the cultural sphere." Keller lost her exempt status as an actress (as did all artists who were not in the God's Gifted List) and was called up for the Reich Labour Service. She entered a sham marriage to avoid conscription, and divorced soon afterwards. Keller told interviewer Günter Gaus that she was "simply too lazy" to join.

Breakthrough After the war, Keller returned to act in Freiberg, then in the Soviet Occupation Zone, where she remained until 1947. In 1948, she moved to the Hebbel Theater in Kreuzberg, West Berlin. She depicted the character in 250 performances of the play.

Height of career

She and von Schnitzler married in 1952, but divorced in 1956; they had one daughter, Barbara, who also became an actress. In the same year, Keller also became a member of the National Front's National Council.

During her long career in the Deutsches Theater, she depicted a large variety of roles. In 1952, she first portrayed Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, directed by Rudolf Noelte. Keller appeared as Doolittle in 472 performances through the years. In 1953, she depicted Emilia in Wolfgang Heinz's production of Othello, with Ernst Busch as Iago. Some other important roles she had in the 1950s included Goneril in Wolfgang Langhoff's 1957 staging of King Lear and Masha in his 1958 production of Three Sisters. In addition to theater, she also appeared in cinema and television, with a first notable role in Kurt Maetzig's 1950 film The Council of the Gods. On 6 October 1961, she received the National Prize of East Germany, 1st class, for her participation in the television miniseries Conscience in Turmoil: she played the wife of an army officer (Erwin Geschonneck) who chose to surrender Greifswald to the Red Army without a shot, saving the city from ruin. The series was based on the life of Colonel Rudolf Petershagen.

On 4 October 1963, she first performed what was described as "the role of her life", Der Tagesspiegel columnist Christoph Funke commented: "Keller turned that role into an unprecedented epitome in the portrayal of strong, self-aware women."

In 1977, she received the National Prize once again. In 2000, she received the Caroline Neuber Prize of the City of Leipzig for her "outstanding performance in theater, cinema and television". On 23 July 2000, she performed on the stage of the Deutsches Theater for the last time, delivering the monologue of Elisabeth Matrei in Ingeborg Bachmann's Three Ways to the Lake. She then became an honorary member of the theater, though she continued to act as a guest.

Honors On 1 October 2006, Keller received the Order of Merit of Berlin from Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

Death Keller died in her sleep at a Berlin nursing home on 6 February 2017, aged 93.

Filmography

1949:Quartet of Five 1950: Der Rat der Götter 1951: The Last Year 1951: Zugverkehr unregelmäßig 1960: Das Leben beginnt 1961: Gewissen in Aufruhr (TV miniseries) 1963: Jetzt und in der Stunde meines Todes 1964: Wolf unter Wölfen (TV) 1965: 1967: Frau Venus und ihr Teufel 1969: Nebelnacht 1980: Die Verlobte 1984: Ärztinnen 2012: Das Kindermädchen